About Local 207
Local 207 is involved in every aspect of the fishing industry. We advocate for the fishing industry with the full support of the IAMAW and all 600,000 active and retired members.
Local 207 operates on the foundations of solidarity, because of common interests we gather mutual support from one another in a group. We all believe in that solidarity- trust me when I say it's a little foreign at first... As fishermen we are pretty independent folks, but we come to rely on our union brothers and sisters like family- they are the first to step up when needed and always willing to lend a hand.
We have had some very exciting things happen in Local 207 since we started in 2013. We have purchased a Co-op for our members, so we now own our product "from the ocean floor to your door!" Our website, Lobster207.com Place your order for friends and family!
We have a new office building at 150 Bar Harbor Rd, Trenton, ME 04605.
​Local 207 is representing Maine Lobstermen as an intervener in the North Atlantic Right Whale lawsuit against NOAA in DC. The brief we filed in the DC case was referred to by the judge several times. We feel it is vitally important to separate Maine and Massachusetts. Massachusetts has a whale problem and Maine does not; not to say as fishermen we are not dealing with many of the same issues, the NARW just does not congregate in our waters, they go offshore to migrate to Canada where they feed. Painting the whole east coast with the same brush is not going to solve this problem- only hurt Maine fishermen, our coastal communities and the economy we all rely on, but it will not save additional whales.
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Local 207 led the charge against Offshore Wind- We planned and held a Rally in Augusta to draw attention to the inequities in this entire process. OSW is not as green as everyone thinks! It is the only renewable energy that will forever require crude oil to produce. We do not have another process to smelt the metal used in the turbines or the high output energy cables they bury under the ocean floor, the batteries that must house this energy are eating up precious rare minerals. These minerals are being mined in third world countries by children and the poor. The turbine blades don't decompose stuffing landfills to capacity with these ginormous things, burying them underground to just sit there... What will we do with hundreds of thousands of these? Drop them in the ocean? Of course! Local 207 has spent countless hours on calls, committees, and researching how to move forward... We participate in Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA), Governor's Energy Office (GEO) Meetings, Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee hearings in Augusta. We have a "Wind Group" which is MLU, MLA, MCFA, DLA, and fishermen that are not in any organization- we meet and discuss NARW issues too. Over the past year we have negotiated a committee including fishermen to review independent science, and the placement of OSW. Any commercial project in LMA1 that impacts our fishery will have more hurdles to jump than if they go outside LMA1. We are coordinating a letter with the federal delegation asking NOAA & BOEM to support the work States are doing with industry and not open lease areas in these places. Through the Road Map we are working to establish areas in LMA3 that have historical landings and remove those from the lease catalog too. We just supported a procurement bill that would incentivize leasing outside of LMA 1, this was difficult for us to do as we don't think OSW has a place in the Gulf of Maine, but we know for sure it is not in the middle of where we fish.
Learn more about Local 207
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